


A Father's Love

by ThatMasterOnline



Category: Far Cry 4
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-20 03:46:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15525351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatMasterOnline/pseuds/ThatMasterOnline
Summary: The genderbent Ajay, protective back from the dead father Mohan AU nobody asked for but you're getting anyways.





	1. Unhappy Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> For any tumblr users who've are interested! I now have a blog!
> 
> https://tmoupdateblog.tumblr.com
> 
> Go here for all your fic updates, and feel free to send in questions, requests, fangirl moments, etc. The blog will be updated semi-regularly, as well as be home to masterposts of completed works. This is for all fandoms I've written for, not just the ones I'm currently most invested in writing in. If you have a tumblr, check it out!

Mohan Ghale had expected to reunite with his daughter Anaya so many different ways. So many. Would she laugh with joy, cry happy tears, weep for the lost time, strike him for the sins of his past…? There were so many possible ways she could react upon first seeing him, and so many ways he could react upon first seeing her. What would she be doing, when they first locked eyes? He had imagined so many different answers to that question. What he actually saw, the way they actually reunited...just felt wrong. So incredibly wrong. Anaya would be so many things, strong, intelligent just like Ishwari, brave like her father, but most importantly, she would be HAPPY. 

She certainly wouldn’t be alone in the middle of the forest, crying her eyes out where nobody could find her, yet here she was. Crying, after having first gone to a lot of trouble to make sure nobody would stumble upon her. Crying. His daughter was crying. The sight of his daughter’s pain, just like when she was a baby, felt so inherently wrong that he immediately rushed forward to comfort her.

“Are you alright, what’s wrong?” She flinched at his voice, curling in on herself.

“It doesn’t matter, just leave me alone.” Doesn’t matter? Doesn’t MATTER?! Who had convinced her that her feelings didn’t matter? Who? Mohan would hunt the son of a bitch to the ends of the earth and destroy them.

“Of course it matters. It always matters. Nobody deserves to feel alone when they cry. Nobody.” He held his arms out to her, and she hesitated only a second longer before falling into them, crying loudly.

“I just...I hate him! He...he won’t talk to me anymore!” He? HE? A man had broken his daughter’s heart?

Mohan Ghale was officially on the warpath.

“Who is this you’re talking about?”

“Sabal! He just...He used to...He used to be...everything! He was so kind, and funny, and serious, and passionate...and he looked at me, and he smiled at me, and he was perfect! And then...and then he changed. I had to choose, because of course I had to choose. I was the daughter of the big cheese, Mohan Ghale, my choices carried weight, so of course I had to choose. And...I chose. Amita wanted to blow up Jalendu temple, Sabal wanted to save it and make Bhadra Tarun Matara...and it wasn’t so much about wanting Bhadra to be Tarun Matara, but...no matter how much Amita hated religion, blowing up the temple was too much. It just was. So I chose Sabal, and I made him the leader of the Golden Path. But...the second he was in power...his first order to me as the official leader of the Golden Path...was to send me to kill Amita! God, I shouldn’t have done it, I don't know why I did, I don’t know why I even considered it!” Well, if this ‘Amita’ character wanted to blow up Jalendu temple, Sabal could only have been so wrong in having her executed. Still, the timing was miserably poor. Anaya put Sabal in power, and having his first order be ordering the death of the one woman vying for his position certainly didn’t imply that he planned to be a democratic leader.

“And...I mean, if he had just talked to me, like before, and sent me to...I don’t know, but I just...He made me feel...so humiliated! I just wanted to hitch a ride with him back to Banapur, and he got all ‘What do you think you’re doing? This isn’t your ride.’ He made me feel stupid and alone, and he just took all of my loyalty and tossed it in my face. I felt...I felt like I was being left in the dirt, like I was just the cleanup crew. And then…” They weren’t done? There were more ways Sabal had hurt her? “And then after…when I got rid of Pagan...He...I went back to Jalendu temple, and he had all of these people lined up on their knees, and he was executing them! Just for siding with Amita! But...but they weren’t even Golden Path, they wouldn’t have been able to take up arms to show their support for Amita, they were just civilians! He executed civilians! In front of BHADRA! I don’t...I don’t care if she’s the Tarun Matara or not, she’s only fourteen, and you don't murder people in front of a fourteen year old girl! You don’t! Murder! People! In front! Of four! teen! Year! Old! Girls! You DON’T!” She'd been beating her fist against his shoulder while she spoke, and Mohan let her, mostly because she was clearly distraught. And for once, he agreed. The Tarun Matara was the wife of a god, and it is not a goddess’s place to bear witness to murder. Such acts dirty the soul, and if the Tarun Matara has witnessed them, and Sabal had seen fit to allow her to see such things, or to go out of his way to show them to her, then he certainly didn’t think to cleanse her soul afterward. So now because of Sabal they had an impure Tarun Matara. He needed to see that rectified.

“And THEN…” There’s more. Sweet Kyra, grant him the strength to not murder Sabal the moment he laid eyes on him.

“When I tried to stop him, he...he just...he wouldn’t even let me talk! He...he basically threatened me into silence, and then he shoved me out of the way, and kept right on killing, and what could I do? I...I couldn’t very well kill them all! And then...and then...I don’t know. I...I think that might have been the first time I passed out. It was dark, when I came back to myself. Everyone was gone. Nobody had even bothered to check on me. The second I got up, it was ‘Sabal wants you to liberate the rest of the outposts so Kyrat can truly be ours.’ And he won’t talk to me about what happened or anything! He just tells me to lay off about it. I...I’m afraid to be in the same room with him now. I used to love him but now...I can’t be near him. And...and I’ve started having these...fainting spells. I don’t know what happens, it just feels like the stress gets to be too much and my mind just...shuts down. No matter how hard I try, I can never stay awake.” She sighed. “I always wake up where I passed out. Nobody takes me to a bed, or tries to wake me up, or even looks at me. I just...I put Sabal in power, and now I’m...now I’m the second in command, because Sabal insists on calling me that, but I’m the second in command that gets treated like I’m nothing. And I’m starting to feel like nothing. I just...I just want to run away, leave Sabal and all of this, and maybe just hide out in Pagan’s palace. Nobody ever goes near the place. They leave it standing, but that’s it. I think they might have it cordoned off too. I could live out my days there. It would be better than trying to pretend everything's great with Sabal. He talks about peace all the time...but I haven’t been at peace since the day I reclaimed Jalendu and put Sabal in charge of Kyrat.” She sighed, out of tears but completely exhausted, and Mohan wrapped his arms around her.

“I’ll set him straight,” he promised, because his little girl did not deserve to suffer this much, and frankly Sabal was going to rue the day he tossed his daughter aside like trash.

“He won’t listen to you, he doesn’t listen to anybody! Hell, I’m the daughter of the big cheese and he won’t even listen to me anymore!”

“Oh, he’ll listen to me,” Mohan said, guiding Anaya to a standing position, “And he’ll listen because I’M the big cheese.” She blinked, once and then again.

“Mohan Ghale died years ago…” she began timidly, but she was still looking him over.

“Mohan Ghale was shot and fled the country years ago,” he corrected her gently, “But he’s back, and he needs to hunt down the man who made his daughter cry.” She smiled, the briefest of smiles.

“You’re...really my dad?”

“I am.”

“I...I missed you, dad. I really did. Mom never wanted to talk about you, and I hated not knowing...Now I can finally know.”

“Yes, you can.” He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and slowly walked back to Banapur with her. A mere five minutes later she started to slow, her steps less sure of themselves.

“Anaya?”

“I…” She sank to her knees, and Mohan fell right along with her. They were within calling distance of Banapur. A few more feet and they could get her some help.

“I’m fine...Just another...fainting spell…” She rolled over, almost as though she were finding a comfortable place to sleep, and her eyes closed.

“Anaya, no. Keep your eyes open, Anaya! Anaya! ...Anaya!” She was unresponsive, and Mohan sighed as he pulled her into his arms, lifting her up. She said it was as though her mind couldn’t handle the stress and simply shut down, and that was what it looked like, all of her strength suddenly being sapped away by an unseen force.

“I’ll set him straight, Anaya,” he promised, though he knew she couldn't hear him right now. “You don’t deserve to suffer like this anymore.”


	2. Set Straight

“Mohan Ghale...It’s Mohan Ghale! He’s back from the dead!”

“I need a bed for my daughter.” They ignored him, the shocked murmurs continuing.

“Mohan, it’s Mohan! It’s Mohan!!”

“Enough!” he snapped, and everyone fell silent. Good. At least he still commanded attention when he spoke.

“My daughter needs a place to rest.” 

“Th-there’s an empty safehouse over here…”

“Show me.”

***

Banapur always had a type of ‘pulse’ that Sabal was well-tuned to by this point. When silence fell on the entire east side of Banapur, Sabal knew, and he went to check out what was happening. Half the village was crowded around a safehouse, and Sabal stepped closer to try and overhear some of the snippets of conversation.

“You’re dreaming!”

“No, I saw him! I saw him with my own eyes!”

“But he died YEARS ago!”

“I remember what he looked like, and I’m telling you I SAW HIM!!” 

The safehouse door opened, and a hush fell over the crowd the kind Sabal had never been able to achieve with his presence. Sabal had to look more than twice to be sure he wasn’t seeing things when Mohan Ghale himself stepped out of the safehouse.

“Mohan…” Mohan’s eyes locked on him, and Sabal stepped forward, the crowd parting to let him through.

“Mohan! I can’t believe you’re alive! I have so many things I want to tell you!” Twenty years hadn’t changed the need to be heard first. Sabal wasn’t terribly hard to recognize. Unfortunately, twenty years hadn’t taught Sabal the kind of presence Mohan had. He wasn’t going to speak first with Mohan in the room. Especially not now.

“I have many things to tell you as well. Me first.”

“Of course! Let us walk.”

“No, let us stay.” Mohan’s voice was cold, and Sabal blinked, clearly taken aback. He was not accustomed to being contradicted. Too bad.

“O...of course...Whatever you prefer.” Exactly. Because Sabal wasn’t in charge anymore.

“Sabal…” He began, drawing out the moment when he would let his rage through. He wanted Sabal to sweat first. “I met my daughter for the first time in twenty four years today.” Sabal smiled, having not realized the danger.

“Yes. She’s grown into a fine young woman, hasn’t she?”

“I would imagine so, but we didn’t get much time to talk about the kind of woman she’s become. Do you know what she was doing when we met?” Sabal looked like a fish out of water, the first wisps of doubt creeping into his mind.

“I...I wasn’t with her.”

“No, you weren’t. Do you know what she was doing while you weren’t with her?” Sabal was squirming. Good, let him squirm. The circle around them had widened, the rest of the Golden Path becoming aware of the fact that Sabal was in trouble...and abandoning their leader to his fate. The people could not be wrong. Sabal was not doing his job as a leader. Mohan let him squirm a few seconds longer.

“She was crying.”

“I-I’m sorry…” Mohan smiled, patting Sabal on the shoulder.

“Not yet you aren't. Now.” His voice became colder than ice. “She was crying about you, and the way you’ve been doing things. She said you’ve changed. She said that you were incredible, once. You laughed, you smiled, you cared. But then I understand there was a dilemma at Jalendu temple? You wanted to recapture it, Amita wanted to destroy it? Anaya chose you because destroying a temple was too much, no matter how much Amita hated religion. But then, the moment she put you in charge, you ordered her to kill Amita? That doesn’t send a good message, killing the other person looking to lead the Golden Path? Did you plan on a dictatorship? Just like Pagan? The way Anaya describes it, the moment you were put in power is the time you stopped treating her kindly. What happened, Sabal? Once she put you in power she lost her usefulness, so you TOSSED HER ASIDE LIKE TRASH?!” Mohan couldn’t help it, his rage boiled over. Sabal flinched, but Mohan was unrelenting.

“And then, after she singlehandedly ousted Pagan, you decided your first order of business was to line up innocent civilians and EXECUTE THEM?”

“They sided with Amita and-”

“Did I say you could talk?” Mohan’s tone was such that even the people around them flinched. Sabal fell silent.

“Civilians. That’s the difference Sabal. I myself have executed people who betrayed me, but these people did not betray you. They don’t trust you, but that is not a crime punishable by death. Besides, we aren’t talking about soldiers, we’re talking about civilians. Civilians are not to be executed, they are the lifeblood of your rule. On top of that...I hear you executed them in front of the Tarun Matara? The Tarun Matara? Amaya is horrified because you should never murder people in front of a fourteen year old girl, and I agree, but you justified these executions in front of a child by saying she was no ordinary child, she was the Tarun Matara? Her being the Tarun Matara is an even greater reason for you not to execute people in front of her! The Tarun Matara is meant to remain PURE, Sabal, or have you forgotten that in your madness?”

“I-”

“SHUT. UP! Do you see what you have done?! The lives you have ruined? You sullied the Tarun Matara, you executed innocent civilians, and you used my daughter - my. DAUGHTER! - like a toy, like a step to climb up to the top! Look around you, Sabal, LOOK! The entire village of Banapur is crowded around us, and yet no one has spoken a word in your defence. Why, Sabal, why? Simple. Because they will not defend your actions. They cannot. That, right there, is the scale by which you judge a king, and the people find you lacking, Sabal. Now, back to the matter at hand. Do you know what the matter at hand is, Sabal? Have you been paying attention?” 

“...Anaya…” A blind guess. Sabal still didn’t understand.

“Yes, Anaya. My sweet little girl. My sweet little girl that you RUINED. You broke her heart, Sabal! She LOVED YOU! Oh, but you knew that, didn’t you? You knew, and you manipulated her, whispered sweet nothings and empty promises into her ear to get what you wanted, and then, after EVERYTHING she did for you, you THREW HER TO THE STREETS!” Mohan took a breath. Sabal looked whiter than a sheet, but Mohan was far from done.

“She’s afraid to be in the same room as you! Can you imagine that? Being afraid to be in the same room as a man you once loved and adored? I can only imagine the stress that has been on her, and I know it’s taken a toll on her. She has fainting spells, did you know that? Not ten minutes into our walk back home, she crumpled to the ground. “I’m fine,” she said, even as her strength was sapped from her and she collapsed. I’m fine. Why did she say that, when she clearly wasn’t fine? Because you didn’t care for her, so she’s stopped asking for help. She tells me that after you threatened her into submission at Jalendu she collapsed, right there in front of you. You didn’t even bother to check if she was alright, did you? You didn’t care for her wellbeing either way. Did ANY OF YOU?!” He whirled, and the crowd shrunk back from his fury. He grabbed Sabal by his jacket.

“You have shamed the Tarun Matara, you have shamed Kyra, you have shamed Banashur, and you have shamed ME.” He knew that would sting more than anything else, and Sabal flinched like he'd been struck.

“You will go to the monastery, and you will pray, and you will not leave until you have seen the error of your ways and apologized to Anaya.” He pulled Sabal close, the glare in his eyes murderous. “And don’t think for a second that you can lie your way back into my good graces. I will hear the insincerity in your words, and I will not give you another chance. Do you understand me?” Sabal nodded jerkily, and Mohan dropped him.

“To the monastery. ...GO!!!” Sabal flinched, then turned and took off running. The crowd was silent, and Mohan took a moment to appreciate them. Men and women littered the crowd, and yet none of them had shed a tear, though they all shook from fright. Men, women...it didn’t matter, they were soldiers, every one of them. Perhaps Ishwari had been right, and he had been remiss to keep women from joining the Golden Path. He took a breath. That was neither here nor there, what mattered was his daughter.

“I am going to tend to my daughter,” he said, his voice level but still authoritative, “I would ask that I not be disturbed in the meantime. Once Anaya has woken and is well again, I will be available for whatever you may have need of me for. I will lead the Golden Path until Sabal is able to cleanse himself and return a proper leader. Make no mistake, I will gladly give the command of the Golden Path back to Sabal upon his return, but until that time you obey me. Are we understood? If there are any questions, I give you this space to voice them without fear of retribution.” A finger rose, and Mohan smiled encouragingly at the owner.

“Yes?”

“Do you think Sabal will really be able to...to get back on the right track and...do the right thing again? Because he was, for a while, but...then...well, I don’t know…”

“I have no doubt that Sabal was once the best leader the Golden Path has ever seen, and I have no doubt that he will become that again. Is there anyone else?” After a few seconds of silence, Mohan nodded.

“Good. Then resume your duties. I will return when Anaya wakes.”

Anaya blinked herself back to consciousness, rolling over to try and shake away the last to the weariness. Her father was there, and he put a hand on her shoulder as she finally managed to come back to herself.

“Anaya. How are you feeling?”

“I’m okay now, I always am...What am I doing here?” 

“You passed out, so I brought you back to Banapur to rest.”

“In a bed?”

“Would you have preferred I left you on the ground?” Anaya smiled.

“No, I suppose not...If we’re in Banapur...is Sabal here?”

“No, Anaya, and he won’t be around for a long time. I sent him to the monastery to see the harm he has caused and pray for forgiveness. He won’t be back until he has changed.”

“You...I get the feeling I missed something big while I was out.” Mohan laughed off her concern.

“Oh, it was nothing, really.”

***

“It was terrifying!” One of the soldier's gushed to Anaya when asked what had transpired while she was unconscious, “I thought I was going to die, and I wasn’t even the one he was mad at! He walked into Banapur, carrying you in his arms, and then he put you in a safehouse to rest, and the second he got out he made a beeline for Sabal and RIPPED HIM A NEW ONE, honestly! Sabal was petrified!”

“I think Mohan might have been a little cruel…” Another chimed in uncertainly.

“If somebody broke my daughter’s heart to the point that they started passing out, nothing would be too cruel. Besides, I’ve been worried about Anaya. Mohan’s helping her get back on her feet. And maybe Sabal really will change.”

“...I don’t think Mohan’s going to give him much of a choice, honestly.”


End file.
